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Background: Informed consent is essential for the ethical conduct of clinical research and is a culturally sensitive issue. But, a measurable Chinese version of the scale to evaluate the informed consent process has not yet been explored in the existing literature. Research objectives: This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test the Chinese version of the Informed Consent Process Scale. Research design: Back-translation was conducted to develop the Chinese version of the questionnaire. A cross-sectional survey was administered, after which an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Participants: We recruited a total of 375 participants who had experience in signing an informed consent form within the previous 3 years in Taiwan. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by two Institutional Review Boards and the autonomy of the participants was respected. Findings: The Chinese version of the Informed Consent Process Scale is composed of three factors with 23 items showing evidence of acceptable reliability and validity. Three major factors were extracted and labeled: Factor 1 – 'Understanding of the research', Factor 2 – 'Trust and confidence' and Factor 3 – 'Doubt and uncertainty'. The three factors accounted for is 52.954 of the total variance with Cronbach's α of.917. Discussion and conclusion: The finding corroborates previous studies showing that participants had too little understanding on the informed consent forms they signed and implied the need to clarify the critical points in clinical research. The psychometric results indicated good internal consistency and validity for this newly constructed instrument, and it was found worthy of conducting further testing and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study was designed to identify patients’ experiences and perceptions related to living with late-stage chronic kidney disease. Interviews were held for 15 patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease from two medical centers in Taiwan. Five themes were identified using content analysis: experiencing moderate to severe symptoms and signs; tracing back to causes; realizing the long-term, irreversible nature of the disease; facing the consequence of unavoidable deterioration; and coping with the disease. The findings present the special lived experiences of Taiwanese chronic kidney disease patients and highlight the need for healthcare providers to assess patients’ illness representation before offering interventions for patients coping with chronic kidney disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the two-factor theory, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are different concepts. This study examines the influence of perceived ease of use (PEOU) as a context factor and perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived enjoyment (PEN) as content factors to further the influence on satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. The current study uses descriptive statistics, t-test, multiple regression analysis, ANOVA, and SEM. The study recruited 660 participants, of which 336 (50.90 percent) were males. The results not only confirm the two-factor theory but also indicate some interesting findings. The context factor not only impacted on dissatisfaction but also indirectly impacted the relationship between content factor and satisfaction. In a website which is not easy for using, the poor design would arouse the dissatisfaction of users. Users who accessed Facebook for communication seemed to ask for a website with higher usefulness, but users with playing purposes would try to explore it in an acceptable situation with lower perceived PEOU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]